17 September 2025 The Future is the Product of the Past

Recent excavations at Girsu uncovered innovative civilization-saving technology of Ancient Sumerians

In ancient city Girsu, located near the modern city of Nasiriyah in southern Iraq, revealed through a recent excavation by the British Museum, that ancient Sumerians invented a “civilization-saving” water channel 4,000 years ago.

A recent dig at Girsu revealed “a mysterious structure,” which in the 1920s was interpreted as an unusually shaped temple. However, members of the museum’s Girsu Project have discovered the true function of a mysterious structure created by the civilization.

The team describe the ancient lifesaving device as a “flume” that was used to deliver water to distant locations for agriculture.

A way of life threatened by vital canals drying up seems to have led the Sumerians, who were the first to tell early versions of the biblical story of the flood, to create this “anti-drought machine.”

Ebru Torun, an architect and conservationist working with the British Museum team in Iraq, said: “This is absolutely one of a kind. There is no other example of it in history, really, until the present day.”

Torun said that what is most surprising about the find is that until now archaeologists thought such technologies didn’t appear until the 18th century AD.

Aerial view of the structure in the ancient city of Girsu (modern Tello). Photo: British Museum
Aerial view of the structure in the ancient city of Girsu (modern Tello). Photo: British Museum

In a Telegraph article, Dr. Sébastien Rey, an archaeologist and the project’s leader in Iraq, explained that the people “saw the canals drying up, silting up, one by one.” He added that “It is not just a bridge, it’s an anti-drought machine, anti-collapse.” Furthermore, all of the inscribed stone tablets speak of “a water crisis, and one last desperate attempt to save themselves,” added Rey.

Their civilization revolved around water and relied on advanced irrigation, which directed water from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers into canals that watered fields, providing the food required to sustain urban life. It was part of an order maintained by gods, who in turn were maintained by sacrifice and libations, but when the gods abandoned Girsu, the Sumerians were forced to effect their own salvation.

Channel is formed of two symmetrical mud-brick structures about 130 feet long, 33 feet wide, and with 11-foot-high walls arranged in two opposing curves bending outwards.

On the British Museum’s Girsu Project, a team of scientists flew drones around the village of Nasr and discovered the “life-saving machine” was located on a 19-kilometer (12-mile) long canal. Because the device spans a body of water, it has been dubbed “the world’s oldest known bridge.”

A digital reconstruction of the flume, which once straddled a 12-mile canal. Photo: The Girsu Project/ British Museum
A digital reconstruction of the flume, which once straddled a 12-mile canal. Photo: The Girsu Project/ British Museum

Up until now, the Jisr al-Hajar Hajirah, also known as the Caravan Bridge, located in the ancient city of Edessa, or modern-day Urfa, in Türkiye has been recognized as the oldest bridge in the world. It was constructed sometime around 850 BC.

The latest research has now revealed that the structure that channeled a 100-foot-wide canal into a 13-foot-wide passage would have created a feature known as the “Venturi” effect, something that would not be theorized by scientists until the late 18th century. It refers to the increase in velocity of liquids as they pass through a constricted “throat”, and can be put into practice with structures known as “Venturi flumes”.

It is believed the structure was built by the final generations living in Girsu in a last attempt to save their home from becoming unlivable.

British Museum

Related Articles

Underwater Archaeologists Discover a 7,000-Year-Old Road in Croatia

8 May 2023

8 May 2023

A team of underwater archaeologists from the University of Zadar has discovered the sunken ruins of a 7,000-year-old road that...

Underground Tunnels Discovered in Cusco, Reviving Inca Legends

31 January 2025

31 January 2025

Underground tunnels, long rumored in local legends, have been discovered beneath Cusco, Peru, the former capital of the Inca Empire....

3,000-Year-Old Huge Settlement Discovered in Northern France

24 March 2025

24 March 2025

Archaeologists have unearthed a remarkable settlement in the Hauts-de-France region, dating back to the Late Bronze Age and early Iron...

2,000-Year-Old Wooden Roman Bridge Discovered in Aegerten, Bern, Switzerland

3 September 2025

3 September 2025

Archaeologists in Switzerland have uncovered the remains of a 2,000-year-old wooden Roman bridge during construction work in Aegerten, a municipality...

Flint tools found in Tunel Wielki Cave, Poland, about half a million years old

9 October 2022

9 October 2022

Flint tools discovered over 50 years ago in the Tunel Wielki Cave (Maopolskie region) are not tens of thousands of...

Evidence of textile manufacture dating back millennia was found in an area famous for the Witney Blanket

12 June 2023

12 June 2023

Archaeological excavations at the site of Oxfordshire County Council’s project to build the A40 Science Transit Park and Ride at...

A fragment with the oldest Syriac translation of the New Testament discovered

7 April 2023

7 April 2023

A researcher from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, with the help of ultraviolet photography, was able to discover a small...

3700 years old Brain and skin remnants discovered at Bronze Age settlement in western Türkiye

5 September 2023

5 September 2023

Archaeologists discovered, well-preserved brain and skin remnants of two individuals dating to the Bronze Age during excavations at Tavşanlı Höyük...

1,800-Year-Old Gold Ring with ‘Venus the Victorious’ Carving and Carolingian Coins Discovered in France

25 December 2024

25 December 2024

Archaeologists from the French National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) have discovered a 1,800-year-old gold ring with a chiseled...

Digitally Reconstructed: Roman Roads That Shaped 1,000 Years of Travel Across Medieval Britain

21 May 2025

21 May 2025

Researchers digitally reconstruct medieval England and Wales’ travel routes, revealing how Roman roads shaped post-Roman mobility over a thousand years....

Researchers Found Evidence in Ethiopia of a Human Population that Survived the Eruption of the Toba Supervolcano 74,000 Years Ago

22 March 2024

22 March 2024

Researchers working in the Horn of Africa, also known as the Somali Peninsula have uncovered evidence showing how Middle Stone...

In Cyprus, an important early Christian site has been discovered

12 September 2021

12 September 2021

An important Christian settlement was discovered with mosaics bearing clear inscriptions in Greek during the excavations carried out by the...

Archaeologists deciphered the Sabaean inscription on a clay jar finds link between King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba

3 April 2023

3 April 2023

Archaeologists deciphered a partially preserved inscription that was found on the neck of a large jar dated back to the...

Oldest footprints of pre-humans identified in Crete

11 October 2021

11 October 2021

Six million-year-old fossilized footprints on the island show the human foot had begun to develop. The oldest known footprints of...

The 4,500-year-old Wisconsin canoe was built around the same time that Stonehenge was being constructed

31 May 2024

31 May 2024

Historians from Wisconsin have reported the amazing finding of at least eleven prehistoric canoes in Lake Mendota, which is close...